This practice keeps data on you relating to who you are, where you live, what you do, your family, possibly your friends, your employers, your habits, your problems and diagnoses, the reasons you seek help, your appointments, where you are seen and when you are seen, who by, referrals to specialists and other healthcare providers, tests carried out here and in other places, investigations and scans, treatments and outcomes of treatments, your treatment history, the observations and opinions of other healthcare workers, within and without the NHS as well as comments and aide memoires reasonably made by healthcare professionals in this practice who are appropriately involved in your health care.
When registering for NHS care, all patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database, the database is held by NHS England, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.
GPs have always delegated tasks and responsibilities to others that work with them in their surgeries, on average an NHS GP has between 1,500 and 2,500 patients for whom he or she is accountable. It is not possible for the GP to provide hands on personal care for each and every one of those patients in those circumstances. For this reason GPs share your care with others, predominantly within the surgery but occasionally with outside organisations.
If your health needs require care from others elsewhere, outside this practice, we will exchange with them whatever information about you is necessary for them to provide that care. When you make contact with healthcare providers outside the practice but within the NHS it is usual for them to send us information relating to that encounter. We will retain part or all of those reports. Normally we will receive equivalent reports of contacts you have with non NHS services but this is not always the case.
Your consent to this sharing of data, within the practice and with those others outside the practice, is assumed and is allowed by the Law.
People who have access to your information will only normally have access to that which they need to fulfill their roles, for instance admin staff will normally only see your name, address, contact details, appointment history and registration details in order to book appointments. The practice nurses will normally have access to your immunisation, treatment, significant active and important past histories, your allergies and relevant recent contacts, whilst the GP you see or speak to will normally have access to everything in your record.
You have the right to object to our sharing your data in these circumstances but we have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests. Please see below.
We are required by Articles in the General Data Protection Regulations to provide you with the information in the following 9 subsections.
| 1) | Data Controller | Dr P Fludder, Riverbank Medical Centre |
| 2) | Data Protection Officer | Richard Newell – Contactable via the Practice |
| 3) | Purpose of the processing | Direct Care is care delivered to the individual alone, most of which is provided in the surgery. After a patient agrees to a referral for direct care elsewhere, such as a referral to a specialist in a hospital, necessary and relevant information about the patient, their circumstances and their problem will need to be shared with the other healthcare workers, such as specialist therapists, technicians etc. The information that is shared is to enable the other healthcare workers to provide the most appropriate advice, investigations, treatments, therapies and or care. |
| 4) | Lawfull basis for processing | The processing of personal data in the delivery of direct care and for providers’ administrative purposes in this surgery and in support of direct care elsewhere, is supported under the following Article 6 and 9 conditions of the GDPR:
Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’. Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services…” We will also recognise your rights established under UK case law collectively known as the “Common Law Duty of Confidentiality”* |
| 5) | Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data | The data will be shared with Health and care professionals and support staff in this surgery and at hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centres who contribute to your personal care. |
| 6) | Rights to object | You have the right to object to some or all the information being processed under Article 21. Please contact the Data Controller or the practice. You should be aware that this is a right to raise an objection, that is not the same as having an absolute right to have your wishes granted in every circumstance |
| 7) | Right to access and correct | You have the right to access the data that is being shared and have any inaccuracies corrected. There is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of Law. |
| 8) | Retention period | The data will be retained in line with the law and national guidance. https://digital.nhs.uk/article/1202/Records-Management-Code-of-Practice-for-Health-and-Social-Care-2016 or speak to the practice. |
| 9) | Right to complain | You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, you can use this link https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.
or call their helpline Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate). There are National Offices for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, (see ICO website). |
Recording Telephone Calls
We record our telephone calls for two reasons, firstly to protect patients and staff and other health workers. Patients are protected by our having a record of our conversations with you, staff and other health workers are protected from potential abuse. Secondly we record some calls or other audio visual communications such as Skype calls, because they can contain clinical information that can become part of your medical records. We also occasionally use recordings for staff training and quality control.
When you register with us we will make this clear to you and we will also make this clear to you each time you contact us and via our web site and other sources of information
Calls will be retained for 6 months and are then routinely deleted.
Calls, or transcripts of calls, audio or audio-visual recordings or elements of the discussion you have with the clinicians that contain clinical information may be added to your medical records, but this will be clarified with you at the time.
The recordings are stored as part of our telephone system and are protected by password accessed only by Medical Centre Management and for maintenance purposes only by Thorntons Communications. These recordings will not usually be shared outside the practice.
If we hold recordings that have not been deleted you can ask for copies. Please contact reception for details.
If you object to your call being recorded we can locate the recording and delete it from the system immediately afterwards.
CCTV
The Practice has CCTV installed. In keeping with our commitment to providing the best possible service to all our patients, we hope the CCTV installation will provide assurance to patients & staff that safety and security are high on our agenda. All cameras are visible, clearly signed and are in public areas only, including the car park. We uphold our policy that all consultations are private and confidential therefore please be assured that no equipment has been installed in any of the consulting rooms.